UnSilenced Speaks Out
“It made me feel like I had a purpose—that UnSilenced had [a] purpose, and that it helped people.”
Last Thursday, students gathered in the Assembly Hall for the annual UnSilenced event that kickstarted the Martin Luther King, Jr. (MLK) Day celebrations. Performances ranged from music and poetry to film and spoken word—all connected to the theme of voicing ideas that often go unheard.
This year’s event was directed by upper Alisha Simmons and lower Charlotte Lisa through a subdivision of the MLK Planning Committee. Simmons was inspired to take charge of the performance’s logistics because of her powerful experience while performing in last year’s UnSilenced. She believes that UnSilenced plays a key role in the yearly anticipated MLK Day celebration. “Martin Luther King Day is about learning, listening and growing. With UnSilenced, students first see their peers talk about their experiences and [then] present their work,” she said.
Senior and MC Malokiba Syed views the event as an exciting precursor to MLK Day. “It hypes people up,” she said. “Activism and art really goes hand in hand. It allows students to get excited and brush upon our themes without being rigid.”
One of the first acts in this year’s program featured new lower Nina Weeldreyer singing “Imagine” by John Lennon alongside prep KG Buckham-White. Through her performance, Weeldreyer wished “to share a more peaceful side of the UnSilenced performances” with Lennon’s timeless lyrics that yearn for a perfect world “where we all live as one without segregation, separation or violence.”
Senior Sarah Hardcastle brought a different message to the table with their rendition of the song “Nina Cried Power” by Hozier. “[Nina Cried Power] was written with the input of protestors who marched in the Civil Rights movement,” Hardcastle said. Through sharing powerful lyrics such as “it’s not the waking, it’s the rising,” Hardcastle’s stage stayed true to this year’s MLK Day theme of Gen Z Activism and the emphasis on youth taking action. “It’s not enough to just learn about an issue. You have to rise up and fight against it. You have to take action,” they said.
Senior Eugene Hu tried to form a “bridge” with his spoken word performance. Using the hood of his coat to represent two separate identities, Hu recreated a conversation between polarized sides to highlight the importance of respectful dialogue in the fight for justice. He hoped that his performance was able to bring up the question of how far taking a stance can go before it becomes disrespectful. “I wanted to show that it is important to take a stance for things that you believe but if you go too extreme, it can easily become what you were condemning and fighting against,” he said.
Hu drew inspiration from the problems he observed at Exeter in addition to his own growth from his middle school years. “I thought about making an interaction of myself condemning what I did before and [if] my former self was to argue back,” he said. “I wanted to show the polarization of ideas and inability to accept the viewpoints and opinions that differ and speak about the injustice occurring outside our campus.”
Senior Adar Tulloch, meanwhile, brought a change to the pace of UnSilenced with a haunting rendition of Chopin’s Funeral March on piano. Although Chopin may have seemed a bit out of place in UnSilenced to some, Tulloch connected the emotions of the music to his own personal experiences. “It’s a very somber piece [that] Chopin wrote to describe the pain of an entire nation--of his country, Poland,” he said. For Tulloch, the piece wove the story of his Jamaican roots and those of fellow Jamaicans scattered across the world. “The pain and grief related to them was the UnSilenced part for me,” he said.
Lower Adia Allison performed the closing act––a soulful rendition of “A Change is Gonna Come” by Sam Cooke. Allison was inspired to sing the piece by her visit to Alabama with Exeter on the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) trip. “This song means a lot to me,” she said. “Towards the end of the [EJI] trip, there was a Rosa Parks march in commemoration of her second arrest. In that march, there was a woman, and she was singing that song. It moved me a lot, and as we walked and she sang that song with such power; I felt like I wanted to try to do something similar to that.”
For Allison, the opportunity to perform at UnSilenced was incredibly moving. Allison described the opportunity to perform at UnSilenced as incredibly moving. “I was able to move people the way that woman in Alabama moved me,” she said. “It made me feel like I had a purpose—that UnSilenced had [a] purpose, and that it helped people.”
MLK Planning Committee co-chair and English Instructor Mercedes Carbonell praised the the variety of performances—especially Tulloch’s unique choice of playing the piano. “I have a lasting memory of Adar lifting the ridges of the piano, drawing forth the bench, leaning in to play and offering an unexpected performance; we do not often hear Chopin at UnSilenced.”
Even audience members who were not part of the usual Exeter community found the performance impactful. Visiting student leader and freshman Sydney Cook from the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute lauded Allison’s touching stage. “Adia absolutely killed it! Not only was her song choice impeccable, but her voice was amazing. While she was singing, I had goosebumps,” she said.
Cook expressed her gratefulness for the chance to watch the performance during her time at Exeter. “UnSilenced was definitely my favorite part of the whole trip,” she said. “Getting to see everyone display their talents was truly great, and I definitely will apply to Exeter if all of the students are that talented!”